Research Methods

A priori

Using personal reasoning or logic “you just know some things are true”

Applied research

Research that takes the theoretical lessons learned in academic contexts and applies them to real life

Cognitive conservatism

The way a person views the world is based on their prior beliefs

epistemology

Study of knowledge

Humanities research

Research that uses performative or artistic elements to look at how we co-construct meaning through communication

Social research

How social interactions come into existence, function, and affect the human experience

Tenacity

Assumption that something is true because it’s always been true

Theory

a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world; an organized system of accepted knowledge that applies in a variety of circumstances to explain a specific set of phenomena

axiology

the study of values and value judgments

Deductive model

Theory driven model of begging with a theory and then gathering evidence to evaluate the theory (quantitative)

hermeneutics

Knowledge gained via interpretation

Inductive model

“Grounded theory” communication scholars begin the research process by gathering data and observing patterns in the data (qualitative)

Interpretivism

Research perspective where understanding and and interpretation of the social world is derived from ones personal intuition and perspective

nominalist

Belief that there is no universal truth and that ideas about the way things are are constructs of the individual or cultural way of seeing the world

Objectivist

It’s possible to know and explain the world

Ontology

Study of nature of reality

Positivism

Belief that scientific evidence is superior to other ways of knowing

Proprietary research

Research for a specific audience which is not shared beyond the intended audience

Realist

Belief that the world exists and is tangible

Social constructionist

Belief that our ideas about reality are constructed through societal and interpersonal communication

subjectivist

Belief that knowledge is relative and can be understood only from the point of view of the individual involved

Applied research

Research that tests theory in real life contexts to see if it can be used in real life

Body of knowledge

Research that has already been conducted

Boolean search

A search function that connects two or more concepts in search engine using “and” “or”

Databases

Sources that search through many journals at a time

Conceptual definition

How the concept is being defined

Fact pattern

Factual relationship is occurring repeatedly

Hypothesis

Statement a researcher makes about the relationship between a dependent and an independent variable

Null hypothesis

Statement that a research hypothesis is wrong (ie there is no (null) relationship between the variables the research predicted

Operational definition

How the concept or variable of interest is measured and/or observed

Research question

Questions scholars ask about the way things work